Just bought a 64 Fairlane and it was running great over the last week. I went to start it a few days ago and it wouldn't start. There was just a metallic vibrating/ringing sound coming from the solenoid. I bought a new solenoid and the car still won't start and the noise is the same. However, I was about to give up yesterday but figured i would try to start it one more time and it actually started right up. Let it run a few minutes, turned it off, and then it wouldn't start back up. This morning when I went to try again and i noticed a spark coming from the battery where the positive wire attaches. also, that wire was somewhat warm to the touch after a couple attempts at starting it. Any ideas what's going on? I've read somewhere that I might just need a new battery, that i should sand the connections, could it be a bad starter????

 

Anytime you notice heat coming from a connection it usually means high resistance/ poor connection or there could be excessive current draw from the starter itself. You might try cleaning the battery terminal connections and also all the ground connections you can see. The solenoid is sometimes grounded through the sheet metal of the inner fender and through time connections become corroded and don't always allow the solenoid to pull in strong enough to make a good connection to the starter. If after you did all that, there is always the starter itself , especially if its been on there a long time .

 

thanks hanky. while i do think all the wiring and connections need to be looked at, it turned out that the positive battery terminal was touching the inside of the fender and drained the battery. looks like i have the wrong battery/mount. lets hope i don't blow myself up while learning how to trouble shoot this fine piece of machinery.

 

Battery posts for Ford vehicle batteries were usually opposite locations from other vehicles. Where for example the positive post was on the left side, on a Ford it was on the right side ,this might have contributed to the problem of the positive post being too close to the sheet metal.